BP Plc settles oil spill case for $7.8 billion

NEW ORLEANS: BP Plc said it reached a $7.8 billion settlement with businesses and individuals over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, removing one of three major litigation fronts facing the company over the biggest offshore spill in US history.

BP said yesterday in a statement that the settlement will be paid out of a $20 billion trust set up to compensate spill victims. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said settlement will resolve most private claims for economic loss, property damage and medical injuries.

Plaintiffs lawyers said there wasn't a cap on the total damages BP has to pay. "This settlement will provide a full measure of compensation to hundreds of thousands," Stephen J Herman and James P Roy, the plaintiffs' coliaison counsel, said in their statement. "It does the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people."